States' hospital data for sale puts privacy in jeopardy

Hospitals in the U.S. pledge to keep a patient's health background confidential. Yet states from Washington to New York are putting privacy at risk by selling records that can be used to link a person's identity to medical conditions using public information. Consider Ray Boylston, who went into diabetic shock while riding his motorcycle in rural Washington in 2011. He careened off the road and was thrown into the woods, an accident that was covered only briefly, in the local newspaper. Boylston disclosed his medical condition and history to a handful of loved ones and the hospital that treated him.